2 comments

  • jasonthorsness 1 hour ago
    Had to read the article to find how the mice were lifting!

    "To access food, mice were fit with a small collar around the shoulders that required them to lift and set down the cage lid in a squat-like motion, which activates concentric and eccentric muscle contraction"

    There is a diagram as well :)

  • anovikov 2 hours ago
    I wonder why is that research even being done anymore. Isn't obesity solved for good with GLP-1? Why do we need to return to this, aren't there more pressing health issues to resolve?
    • Propelloni 1 hour ago
      There are no silver bullets. Receptor agonists only work as long as you take them and seem to have a limit at about 15-20 % of your starting mass. Bar a lifestyle change, once you stop taking them, most regain their weight. Furthermore they have side effects like vomitting, nauseau and increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer and gallstones. If you are seriously overweight, agonists may give you the headstart you need, but they are not a long-term solution.

      A lifestyle change alone may take longer (it took me about a year to lose 15 % of my weight) but is longer lasting and cheaper. That muscle build-up is more beneficial to weight reduction than cardio is not new but research is still warranted.

      • anovikov 53 minutes ago
        True, you take them for life, given multitude of other benefits, what's the problem about it? No one is claiming otherwise. Problem used to be the price, but now they are cheap.

        Negative consequences of quitting gym are even more severe than those of quitting GLP-1. Especially if one worked out intensely enough to actually achieve any weight goals (i've been doing it for 6 years with a personal trainer and achieved absolutely nothing). Many people who were serious gym rats, just died after quitting (quitting because of trauma or similar external causes), usually due to heart conditions - heart was unable to readapt. You don't die after quitting GLP-1, just get fat again, which is bad in itself - analogous to yo-yo dieting - but not fatal.

        GLP-1 is indeed, absolutely, a silver bullet for obesity. And pre-diabetes, and multitude of other conditions and among other things, many addictions (albeit not smoking, sadly).

        Having lost weight, i quit gym because it wasn't working for me anyway, and my weight goals have been achieved. Nothing bad happened except now, a year later, i can feel that slight back pains i used to have before starting gym and that completely went away while i was doing it, are slowly coming back.

    • al_borland 2 hours ago
      These miracle cures are rarely miracles after a few years when the negative aspects start to show themselves.

      Having muscle also has significant benefits in its own right.

      • anovikov 45 minutes ago
        GLP-1 isn't new and was used by ~10 years by diabetics - health of which is extremely fragile almost by definition and if it was in any way dangerous, we'd have lots of deaths a long time ago.
        • al_borland 17 minutes ago
          People using it for specific things like diabetes is not the same as using it to compensate for poor lifestyle choices.

          The corporations win. Everyone keeps loading up on low quality food while big pharma attempts to keep people skinny with GLP-1 drugs. This feels like the wrong path. Just because someone is skinny doesn’t mean they are healthy.

    • hollerith 1 hour ago
      The research is for people who did not get swept up in the vast wave of hype and want a safe, non-reckless way to address their obesity.